Comments on: An instinct for beauty?

By: Dave

Dave — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 22:38:03 +0000

Hi Clare – Thanks for stopping by.

Lucy – Yes, but goats manage to look somewhat sagacious no matter what they’re doing, don’t they?

I’ll be very interested ot see what new bloggishness you come up with. (Tumblr.com is worth checking out, if you don’t care about comments. It’s very easy to customize.) I enjoyed your longer meditations on box elder, too, and would be happy to see them return.

By: Lucy

Lucy — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 21:23:52 +0000

Thanks for the link. Taking a short break, and, prompted partly by you, may continue the 30 words on another, more place-based, obsevational blog.
The doves certainly look pretty. We had some goats for a while which sometimes took a break from hyperactivity to gaze meditatively into the sunrise.

By: Clare Grant

Clare Grant — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 06:54:22 +0000

Hi Dave — thanks for mentioning my blogs! I’m glad you like them.

Clare

By: Dave

Dave — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 20:37:33 +0000

Theriomorph – And not just their voices. I really think they are attractive birds, especially against the snow.

Sydney – Thanks for stopping by. I guess if I’d been reading White a little longer, I would’ve known this! It’s very cool that you’re blogging his journals. Much more interesting than Pepys to me.

By: Sydney

Sydney — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 18:54:50 +0000

“When horses, cows, sheep, deer, &c. feed in the wind, & rain, they always keep their heads down the wind, & their tails to the weather; but birds always perch, & chuse to fly, with their heads to the weather to prevent the winds from ruffling their feathers, & the cold & wet from penetrating their skins.”

http://naturalhistoryofselborne.com/1775/11/14/november-14-1775/

Beautiful picture!

By: Theriomorph

Theriomorph — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 18:36:08 +0000

Have always thought of Mourning Doves as being the sheep of the bird world – panicky and dumb, for the most part – but what voices they have, and how much grayer my auditory world would be without them. Love the photo, it’s gorgeous.

By: Dave

Dave — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 14:23:13 +0000

Jo – I hadn’t heard that. Fascinating if true — and in general, for most species, I think genetic variety among individuals would ensure the long-term survival of populations in many different ways. Though some personality types, such as the sociopath, may have the opposite effect.

fiona – Glad the links were useful. Me, I’m an RSS addict, but I do appreciate those few online literary magazines that are savvy enough to provide both kinds of subscription options (and am continually baffled by those that offer neither).

By: MacADNski

MacADNski — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 13:20:59 +0000

My cats sit together and watch the sunset every night.

By: fiona robyn

fiona robyn — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 12:29:06 +0000

Thanks for these Dave – particularly like Clare’s blogs, and have signed up for the daily haikus – so much good stuff out there you can get lost, but I do love these concentrated dollops of words!

By: Jo

Jo — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 07:23:45 +0000

Exceptional photos and interesting prose with which I agree ……there is a fascinating book about sensitivity in humans which states that it is based on an important gene sequence which appears throughout the animal kingdom — roughly 15% of us are highly attuned to our senses, and this translates into the tentative deer at the edge of the grove, the rest charging in to feed, frolic, bungee jump; without the sensitive types, the watchers, the herd/tribe would be under threat……..me I’ve always got my eyes peeled for danger.